Replacements
by justme4444
Summary: After Daisuke dies in a car crash Hikari doesn't find any meaning in living. While Takeru stays by her side and tries to pull her back up from her fall, Hikari begins to recall lost memories, as well as lost feelings.
1. Chapter 1

Takeru Takaishi lifted his hands wearily from the keyboard in front of him and transferred them to his temples, where he rubbed them, frowning slightly. The 20-year-old writer then touched the tips of his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. The whitish glow from the computer screen splashed over his face in a stark contrast with the darkness surrounding him.

He had forgotten to turn on the light. How forgetful. Or out of exhaustion, more of, from attempting to craft out his monthly story for 'Gossip!' magazine. And spending more than 5 hours on it with little results.

Deadlines, deadlines. Takeru, or T.K. for short, tried to persuade himself that his editor's endless pressing for his work was the cause of the creases of worry etched into his brow. He knew it wasn't, and what really made him worry.

It was the person he yelled at for cutting herself and bringing more pain to her already fragile heart. It was the person he prepared meals for, but would end up either eating them himself or throwing it away. It was the very person who screamed back at him, pummeled his chest in fury and often spent hours staring into space, then breaking down into tears.

Hikari Yagami.

_"Hikari-chan?" T.K. opened the door a crack. The warm, orange-yellow light bathed the room, but failed to penetrate the distinct clamminess T.K. felt as he entered._

_The lights were off. They were always off. But the curtains were drawn at least. They had always been pulled shut over the windows, ensuring complete darkness for Hikari to continue living her nightmares._

_A figure was seated by the window. It was outlined by an invisible black line, tracing out lank, coffee-brown hair that lacked the shine it had weeks ago. T.K. stepped further into the room, carefully avoiding the shards of glass on the floor. There was a small knife on the table, glistening with red drops._

_Takeru set the tray of food he had brought in beside her. He knew what Hikari would do next, but he still had to try. He slowly pushed the tray until it was in front of her._

_"Where are they?"_

_"I didn't bring them in. You have to eat." There was a hint of insistence in Takeru's voice._

_"Eat it yourself," she rasped._

_"You can't live like this."_

_"None of your business." A jolt of pain shot through Takeru. He had never heard these cold words come out of Hikari's mouth. She used to be so warm._

_Kari got up and shuffled out of the room. T.K. followed quickly, knowing where she would go. He reached the kitchen first, taking the white bottle and heading for the bathroom._

_"T.K.…don't do this…" T.K. ignored the whisper floating from the kitchen and tumbled the pills out into the toilet bowl, flushing them cleanly away. Kari appeared in the doorway._

_"Why did you do that?"_

_"Get back to your room and eat something."_

_"Why can't you just let me sleep? Why are you doing this to me? Why do you have to interfere so much!" T.K. ignored her. He wheeled her around and gave her a hard shove between the shoulder blades._

_Hikari whipped around and glared at T.K. in the face. He winced. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, but they flashed with anger all the same. "Get out of my life! What business is mine of yours anyway? You're not even related to me!"_

_"I'm doing this because I promised Taichi-san that I wouldn't let anything happen to you while he's overseas," Takeru replied calmly despite Kari's sharp jabbing at his chest with every question she asked. Kari continued to rage at him, punching and slapping whatever bit of Takeru she would reach before he seized her wrists._

_"Well, nothing's happening to me! b Nothing/b So what if onii-chan (A/N: this means 'big brother' in Japanese) told you to take care of me? I do what I like! What makes you think you can order me around and tell me what to do? I don't need you to — "_

_Takeru snapped._

_"Yes, you do! You do need me to tell you what to do! Look at yourself in the mirror before thinking that you can take care of yourself!" He dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the mirror and forced her to look at her reflection. "Look at you! Look at what you've become! A wreck!"_

_"LET GO OF ME!" Kari wrenched herself from T.K.'s grip. "So what if I do waste away? Since Daisuke died what's the point of me even being here? Isn't it better if I went to join —"_

_SMACK!_

_Hikari staggered, feeling where T.K. had just slapped her and staring at him. His expression was unfathomable, but livid at the same time._

_"Enough?"_

_Hikari turned her gaze to the floor, only just realizing that T.K. had slapped her. Slapped her. This was the first time that he had done that since they became friends. 12 years ago. Takeru seized Kari and dragged her back to her bedroom. There was no resistance this time. The defiant, wild Kari before seemed to have deflated, to be replaced by a frail doll. Helpless._

Takeru sighed heavily upon recounting their fierce catfight 2 weeks ago. It had been their worst. A shiver still rippled through his body once he recalled how he had actually used violence on her. Slapped her.

Had he gone too far? Actually laying hands on someone had never been his way of solving problems. Even though Hikari had finally given in and started eating, Takeru always wished he could have used some other way of bringing her to her senses.

_Ah well, enough dwelling on that…_ Takeru stifled a yawn and switched off his computer. He would probably complete his assignment another night. Creative juices just weren't flowing today.

"…T.K.?"


	2. Chapter 2

"_Ouch!" T.K. turned around to see who had cried out in pain. He saw a girl sitting on the ground and pawing cautiously at a cut on her knee, and quickly knelt down to examine her wound._

"_Are you OK?" T.K. reached for some tissue in his back pocket and gently dabbed the wound, blowing at it at the same time. He grinned in relief to see the girl nod and smile. To help her get over her pain, he asked, "So how did you fall?"_

"_I was collecting leaves for a science project at school," the girl answered, "and I saw this really big one, so I ran here to get it. I tripped over there, on that crack." _

"_That must have hurt."_

"_It did! But at least I got my leaf," the girl brandished her leaf to prove it. T.K. produced a band-aid and carefully placed it over the wound. "There! All done."_

"_That hardly hurt at all! You're really good."_

"_Nah, I learn all this from my brother," T.K. blushed in embarrassment. "Can you stand? I'll help you up." He proffered his hand. The girl stood, but wobbled slightly and winced as she stood on her bad leg._

"_You don't look like you can walk properly.." T.K. sniggered, incurring a playful swipe on the arm, "I'm sorry, didn't mean it. I'll walk you home then! Is it far?"_

"_Yes, it's quite a few streets down."_

"_Uh oh. Then…" T.K. thought hard. "I'll carry you!"_

_The girl looked T.K. up and down, and laughed. "But how? You're barely taller than me."_

"_Yeah, that's true. But I can give you a piggyback! Here." T.K. knelt down. The girl hesitated for a bit, then climbed onto his back. They walked for a few blocks before T.K. asked conversationally, "So which school do you go to?"_

"_St. Mary's, in the middle of town."_

"_Me too! But I've never seen you around."_

"_Maybe you just haven't been observant enough."_

"_Hey! My eyesight is perfect, thank you very much."_

"_Really?" The girl asked sceptically, "Let's see how well you can see with your eyes closed!" and she quickly slipped her enormous leaf over T.K.'s eyes. _

"_Hey! I can't see!" He protested, swaying from side to side, almost tripping over his own feet. As he struggled to regain his balance, as an afterthought, he added, "And your leaf smells!" _

"_Smells…?" The girl raised the leaf to her nose and sniffed warily. T.K. took this moment to nudge the leaf up her nose. For a moment, all she could smell was the scent of the leaf, which overwhelmed her nose. She coughed and wheezed repeatedly, so much so that droplets of tears appeared at the ends of her eyes._

"_Hey…are you okay?" _

_The girl looked up to see the look of concern on T.K.'s face. He had noticed that he had gone too far with his mischief when she sounded like she had trouble breathing, and had put her down gently against a fence on the sidewalk._

"_Yeah…I think I'm OK," said the girl, as she hastily wiped the wet off her eyes before the boy in front of her could see it. T.K. grinned, "I didn't think that you would cry because of a mere leaf."_

"_I didn't! Something got into my eye, that's all."_

"_Really? But your nose is still so red…" T.K. stared, then erupted into a fit of giggles. _

"_You're mean!"_

"_Haha…OK OK, I'm sorry. I mean it! I'm sorry," T.K. raised his hands in an act of surrender and flashed an apologetic smile._

_**He has a really innocent smile…**_

_The girl blushed slightly. Feeling confused (and looking it, too), T.K. helped the girl up again._

"_I'm Takeru Takaishi, by the way. My friends call me T.K. I'm 11."_

"_Hikari Yagami. I'm 11 too, and you can call me Kari."_


	3. Chapter 3

"…T.K.? Are you there?_"_

T.K. turned around to see a large figure standing at the other end of the room. As it shuffled forward, it turned out to be just Kari, wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets, her figure framed by the yellow glow of the streetlight outside. Her toes peeked out as she made baby steps towards him.

"Hey…I thought you were sleeping._"_

"I couldn't. I had one of my…one of those things again,_"_ Kari whispered, stumbling over her words, as well as over the ends of her blanket. T.K. swiftly got up and carried her to the sofa. He fussed over her blanket for a bit, making sure she was properly insulated against the twilight cold, then asked, _"_Do you want to talk about it?_"_

"It's not as bad as it used to be…but it still keeps me awake. I just need to sit here for a bit._"_

"Well then, do you want a hot drink? It'll help you sleep._"_

Kari nodded. While T.K. busied himself in the kitchen, she picked up one of the numerous manuscripts that was splayed on the coffee table.

"Writer's block?_"_ she smirked, brandishing a crumpled piece of paper filled with messy scribbles as T.K. returned with a steaming mug of hot chocolate. He snatched it from her, retorting, _"_I'll have you know that this paper contains vital details of the plot development of my latest story._"_

"Latest story, or just the story you've been working on for months?_"_ Kari asked. T.K. averted her eyes and started gathering the papers on the table into a pile.

"T.K., why won't you just stick to writing those monthly stories for 'Gossip!'? They're good enough, aren't they? And it's not as if you're in desperate need of money; if you are, I can help._"_ T.K. remained silent and crossed the room to put away his manuscripts. Kari made an exasperated noise, abandoned her blankets and followed him.

"This project of yours, which you started on a whim by the way, is taking up too much of your time! This is the reason you're still up rushing stories which you're actually committed to finish - _"_

"All right, that's enough._"_

Kari's mouth remained half-open for a moment, poised to continue, when she closed it abruptly, crossed her arms and waited, sensing a slight irritation in T.K.'s voice.

T.K. glanced Kari up and down and gleamed that behind this little person in pink pyjamas was a woman who was genuinely concerned about him. He gave a reassuring smile and explained, _"_I get it, OK? I just don't feel like I'm giving as much as I can to my writing career. There are still so many ideas in my head that I want to explore…the difficult part is putting them on paper and perfecting them; that's what I've been trying to do. Now,_"_ he ruffled her hair playfully and placed her mug in her hands, _"_why don't you drink your hot chocolate while I finish cleaning up. It's late._"_

"I didn't think you knew it was late,_"_ Kari replied resentfully, rumpling her hair back into shape. After a while though, she gave in and sipped her hot drink. A delicious warmth immediately spread throughout her body into her toes.

…**He still knows how I like it…**

As she made her way back to the sofa, a lone piece of paper on the ground caught her eye. Thinking it was a plan of another one of T.K.'s impulsive projects, she picked it up and started to read.

As her eyes traversed T.K.'s scrawls, a peculiar sensation of familiarity started to rise in her stomach. When she had finished, she made her way to the kitchen and asked curiously, "T.K., why does this outline of one of your stories sound strangely similar to a telling of our friendship, just that the male lead falls in love with his best friend?"

Without warning, T.K. suddenly reached forward and seized the paper from Kari's fingers. Kari stared, confused at T.K.'s sudden outburst.

"T.K., what's wrong? It's just a story, right?"

"…Yes. It's just a story."


End file.
